written for the
70th Anniversay of the Martyrdom
of Tsar-Martyr
1918 - 1988
by John W. Ryder
(From Russia, Vol. III, No. 20, July, 1945)

Compiled by Father Demetrios Serfes

Tsar Nicholas Alexandrovich II

(Fr. Demetrios notes: The 17th of July, in the year 1998, will mark, or commemorate, the eightieth anniversery
of the martyrdom of Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II and his beloved family of Russia.
The Western World needs to fully understand Orthodox monarchy. In the Orthodox
teaching, Tsar Nicholas was the last representative of lawful Christian
authority in the world, the last one to retain the mystery of iniquity
(II Thess. 2:27). Since the time of his holy martyrdom, the need for
us all to "wake up", and pursue the "truths at hand",
to fully understand the last Tsar, together with his family, becomes apparant
. He was killed precisely for being an Orthodox Tsar-for his Orthodoxy!
We also need to recognize the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas and his family have
provided a cleansing for Russia and for us all, the world-over! Let us
all spiritually cry out, the more with a single mouth and a single heart,
to glorify Him from Whom is given every good thing and every perfect
gift-God Who is wondrous in His Saints!)t is my very great privilege, as
an American, on this anniversary of the martyrdom of His Imperial Majesty,
Tsar Nicholas Alexandrovich II, Her Imperial Majesty, the Tsaritsa Alexandra
Feodorovna, His Imperial Highness, the Tsarevich Alexei Nicholaevich, and
Their Imperial Hignesses, the Grand Duchesses Olga Nicholaevna, Tatiana
Nicholaevna, Maria Nicholaenva, and Anastasia Nicholaevna, to bring to
the attention of the American people some truthful facts about the last
great Ruler of the Romanov Dynasty.

I do not think it wise just to give a biographical sketch, which one can read in any encyclopedia, nor do I
fee that the life of Nicholas II requires an apologia, but rather in the
form of an essay I would point out a few facts and try to present them
in their proper light. It is extremely difficult, I would warn my American
readers, to find a book printed in the American tongue which is unprejudiced,
fair, or just, in its portrayal of Nicholas II and His reign.

I regret that I am compelled to
write that most of the books one finds in our American libraries are malicious
and vicious in their elements of propaganda, and are a part of an extensive
and expansive propaganda, deliberately misrepresenting Old Russia and its
rulers.

Christian IX, King of Dnemark, was
called the Father-in-law of Europe. I recall a mural in the Rosenborg Castle
in Copenhagen, which portrays Nicholas II as very young boy, part of a
family group, showing the great family of the Danish King, among whom was
the Princess Dagmar, later to become the Russian Tsaritsa Maria Feodorovna,
mother of Nicholas II. I wish that many might see this mural, for then
they could think of the Tsar Nicholas II as a human being, and could sympathize
with him as a human being, notwithstanding the extremely exalted position
to which he was later called as Tsar, the Anointed Ruler of All the
Russians.

The Romanov Dynasty was elected
by the people to be the God-anointed Tsars of All the Russias. The
Romanovs did not by force usurp the throne of Russia, nor did they buy
it.

On the twenty-first of February,
1613, the people gathered in the Square before the Kremlin, having passed
through the Time of Trouble, which followed the deminse of the Tsar Ivan
Vasilievich IV, and the brief reigns of Boris Godunov and Prince Vasily
Shuisky, and the terrible invasions of the Poles, who were backing the
Prentender, the false Dimitri, cried out, "We want Michael Romanov
for Tsar!"

Two months later the Prince Pojarsky
and Troubetskoy offered the Monomachos Crown to the newly-elected Tsar,
symbol of His succession to and continuation of the Byzantine Imperium.

In spite of all adverse criticism,
Nicholas II was a worthy successor to that Imperium, and was one of the
great Tsars of the Romanov Dynasty.

As Tsarevich, Nicholas Alexandrovich
II laid the cornerstone, with proper ceremony, as his first official act,
of the Trans-Serberian Railroad.

On his twenty-eighth birthday, Nicholas
Alexandrovich II, wearing the simple dark green uniform of a Colonel of
the Preobrazhensky Guards, entered the Uspensky Cathedral within the Kremlin
to receive the Imperial Crown of All the Russias. In his Cornonation Oath,
Tsar Nicholas Alexandrovich II swore to maintain the Holy Orthodox Faith,
and to be responsible before God for Russia.

Nicholas II was a man with a deep
sense of duty and took his Coronation Oath seriously. He felt that his
great responsibility to God and to the Russian people, was to protect the
Holy Orthodox Catholic Church and the Russian State.

The Tsar was much criticized by
some because, during his reign, there were not so many balls and other
social functions, but the fact is that the conscientious Tsar spent long,
tedious hours at his administrative desk, performing the arduous duties
which he felt imperative of his personal supervision.

Lincoln has been praised because
he took a personal interest in simple, private individuals. Nicholas II
had the identical compassion for humanity.

One day a watchmaker of Preluk,
Issac Goldenberg, telegraphed the Tsar for permission to visit St. Petersburg
to visit his sick son, a student. The Tsar personally wrote upon the telegram:
"Grant without delay. The man's place is at the bedside of his ailing
son."

We must remember that the nineteenth
century was a period of transition and great unrest, of over-reliance on
scientific knowledge, and revolution; for instance, Lenin had a naive veneration
for electricity, and almost regarded "the powers of electrification"
as supernatural.

As a boy Nicholas II has seen His
liberal grandfather, Alexander II, who had freed the serfs, brought to
his death by brutal assassination. This was proof enough that these revolutionists
did not want progress, but merely power for themselves, which they finally
obtained, and which we witness today as such an overwhelming threat to
our present civilization.

Nicholas Alexandrovich II, notwithstanding
his oath to preserve the ancient imperium, was not backward, as so often
maliciously written, but tried to cooperate with the democratic trend of
the times, and to bring the representatives of the people into the discussions
of state affairs.

The Greeting and Message to the
first Duma, Russian Parliament, was read in the Great Throne Room of the
Winter Palace on the twenty-seventh day of April, 1906:

Celestial Providence that imposed
upon Us the responsibility for the weal of Our country, has moved Us to
summon the deputies of Our people for cooperation in legislative labors.
Fervently believing in a glorious future for Russia, We welcome them as
the representatives whom Our much-beloved subjects elected in accordance
with Our command. Although difficult tasks await you, we are certain that
love for your homeland and a burning desire to serve Russia will inspire
and strengthen you. We, for Our part, shall steadfastly preserve the principles
which were granted to you. We sincerely trust that you will consecrate
all your strength to the service of the country so that you may ascertain
the needs of the peasantry so near and dear to Our heart, and may plan
ways of increasing education and national wealth. While bent upon your
labors, you will constantly bear in mind that the dignity and happiness
of the Empire must rest firmly upon order in accordance with the princilples
of law. May Our sincere wishes find fulfillment, so that We may leave a
happy, strong, well-ordered, and enlightened Empire to Our son. God's blessing
be upon the labors now before Us, the State Council, and the Duma. May
this day forever be a day of renewal of Russia's best forces. With the
very best that is in you, embark, then, upon the lavors for which We have
called you together and prove yourselves worthy of the confidence bestowed
by Tsar and people. May God be with Us and with you!

But the same revolutionary forces,
which had refused to cooperate with Alexander II and had assassinated him,
in reward for His liberal gesture in freeing the serfs, again refused to
cooperate with the grandson of that Tsar, Nicholas II. Instead of seeking
the welfare of Russia, as the noble Tsar suggested in his opening speech
from the throne, they spent their precious time in attacking the Imperial
Family, and Ministers of State. Their desire was one, and that was to obtain
the absolute concentration of power into their own selfish hands, such
as we see exhibited by the despot Stalin today-in Stalin we almost hear
repeated the terrible words of Rehoboam: "My father chastised
you with whips, but I well chastise you with scorpions."

Nicholas II has been called the
"Peace-loving Tsar," for, more than anything else, he longed
for the happiness and contentment of the great peasant masses of Russia
and of all Russians. He knew what happiness and contentment can be developed
only where there exists PEACE.

On the twelfth of August, 1898,
the Imperial Russian Government, at the suggestion of Tsar Nicholas Alexandrovich
II, proposed to all sovereign countries that in the future all difficulties
be settled by an International Court of Arbitration to be established at
The Hague. At this time, when so much is being made of Dumbarton Oaks and
the San Francisco Charter, we should pause for a moment and think of this
great Romanov Tsar, who proposed and even greater and more just plan to
secure universal peace for mankind almost half a century ago! How little
the people appreciate the efforts of the truly great; how readily the people
is led astray by vicious and malicious propaganda- "Away
with Him! Away with Him!" cried the mobs incited by their
evil leaders, who could not bear the presence of Truth and Justice and
Righteousness.

At the opening of the Second Duma,
the Prime Minister, Peter Arkadievich Stolypin, later assassinated by the
revolutionists, shouted at the unruly members, "You seek to
create tremendous upheavals, but we seek to create a strong Russia."

In the Great Wolrd War I, the Tsar
Nicholas II was faithful to his Allies, the United States, France, Great
Britain, etc., etc., and refused under all circumstances to make a separate
peace with the common enemy, Germany. This act of treason to the Allied
Cause, the Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a seperate peace treaty with
Germany, was made by the traitor bolsheviks, under the guidance and instigation
of Trotsky (Leon Braunstein) and Lenin (Ulianov).

Nicholas Alexandrovich II was exemplary
as a father and husband. He refused a state marriage and married for love.
His bride was the lovely and gracious Alicia, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt,
a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. Princess Alicia was baptized
into the Holy Orthodox Catholic Faith as Alexandra Feodorovna, and remained
a faithful daughter of the Holy Orthodox Catholic Church until her brutal
martyrdom at Ekaterinburg by the godless bolsheviks.

One must be moved and impressed
by the tender devotion and happy family life of the Imperial Couple. Some
writers have scoffed at this affectionate family life and called it bourgeois,
but we must remind these writers that a happy family life is the second
greatest blessing which God can bestow upon mankind. Until their martyrdom,
the Imperial Family enjoyed the great blessing of God. Their home at Tsarskoye
Selo was a resplendent example to the Nation of fidelity and devotion and
the apex of human love.

The brutal and bloody martyrdom
took place at Ekaterinburg during the night between the sixteenth and seventeenth
of July, 1918. No Russian took a responsible part in this bloody deed.

Later, Red functionaries, the Chekists,
were to have a memorandum come to light which read: "During
the night we shot the Romanov Family and their confidants, eleven people
altogether. I remained int he cellar the whole time. First, the four daughters
of the former Tsqr, Olga, Maria, Tatiana, and Anastasia, were brought in.
They conducted themselves quietly and enough, although it is possible that
they were weeping. We shot all four in quick succession. Then Nicholas
II was brought into the cellar with his wife and son. When the former Tsaritsa
glimpsed the bodies of her daughters, she screamed loudly, and rush to
the side of her boy. We did not waste much talk on her, and shot her immediately.
At the same time some of the men pulled the trigger and Nicholas fell to
the floor. The last of them, the little Tsarevich Alexei, dropped after
two shots, but it was necessary to drill four more bullets into him."
(Editors notes: this is the first time we heard this account of
the martyrdom of Tsar Nicholas II, and his family). Thus ended the act
of martyrdom of the Last Tsar and his Family of the Romanov Dynasty.

In the requiem service of the Holy
Orthodox Catholic Church:

"Again we pray for the
repose of the souls of the departed servants of God, the Blessed Nicholas
Alexandrovich and all Orthodox warriors, and the Imperial Family, and all
who have laid down their life in battle for the Faith and Fatherland, and
that they may be forgiven every transgression, both voluntary and involuntary."(Source: Orthodox Life, St. Job of Pochaev Brotherhood,
Holy Trinity Monastery, New York., Vol. 38, No. 4 July-August 1988., pp.
23-27).